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Boris v Ken – what can we learn about how customers make choices?

How can you discover the Power Attributes that
determine why consumers choose your brand without doing new and
expensive surveys? Our answer is that you can and should
take a stab at it. Whilst doing new research will be more robust, you
can understand valuable insights about your Power Attributes by
analysing whatever data or insight you already have or can easily
gather. This ezine shows you an example of how to do this. We have
analysed the result of the London Mayoral election to illustrate how
this can work.

Analysis of Boris victory?

Voters’ and customers’ choices can seem a bit odd.
So how come the electorate plumped for Boris, who had been seen as a
bit a bit of a joke and prone to gaffs and offered an uncertain
prospect of being competent? We have analysed the Power Attributes to
understand how voters made this choice.

It is possible to take a good stab at understanding the Power
Attributes using available published data. In this case we have
located two very different pre election polls to help us work out the
Power Attributes.

Power Attributes must possess both importance and uniqueness.
So Power Attributes for the candidates are ones that are both important
to voters and in some degree are unique to the candidate. Attributes
will have both functional and emotional elements and both will
influence the customers decision to purchase. In this case of this
election functional really means policy issues and emotional attributes
relate to the candidate’s personality. We started by looking at policy
attributes. MORI revealed the ranking of importance of the policy
issues.

It was difficult for the candidates to get uniqueness on these issues
– even though the candidates were able to offer some differences in
their policies. Ken had a good track record on transport. Brian
Paddick had been a policeman. Boris talked a lot about crime
reduction. When you look beyond crime and transport, the next three
issues lay completely outside the control of the Mayor (NHS, Cost of
living, Education).

The personalities of the candidates offered much more scope for uniqueness

So personality attributes may offer more scope for real power.
When we look for clues about these more emotional attributes, the
metaphorix survey done by Conquest for ITV London was able to highlight
the emotional beliefs about the personalities of the candidates. If we
start by looking at the importance of the different personality
attributes, we discover that the most important attribute is

Trustworthy

However none of the candidates possessed this to any adequate or differential degree. So despite trustworthy being
important as an attribute, it lacked power as a means to choose between
the candidates. So we need to look further to find attributes that are
powerful for each candidate. Conquest discovered there were some
attributes where the candidates differed.

Ken

Boris

Brian

arrogant

refreshing

boring

confident

confident

focused

capable

approachable

honest

We can eliminate confident as this did not distinguish Ken or Boris and
also knock out boring as this is not a positive. The remaining
attributes provide the clues as to why Boris won.

Boris won the day by being approachable and refreshing.
Ken’s lead on capable was outdone by Londoners’ desire for a change.
For Brian Paddick, being focused and honest was just not important
enough to Londoners.

Power Attributes for London Mayor

The Power Attributes for this London Mayoral election were to offer a
change from a tired and slightly arrogant incumbent and promise to
address violent crime alongside transport issues.

No doubt the national issues of healthcare, cost of living and
education played a part. Ken would have suffered by his association
with a struggling Labour government. But since these issues remain
outside the direct control of the Mayor and were difficult for the any
candidates to discuss.

For an attribute to be powerful you must be able to create some uniqueness.
The most powerful attributes were those where the candidates could
establish some uniqueness. It is the combination of an attribute being
both important and unique, that creates the power to influence voters
or consumers choices.